Champions League

In the end he was left to perform for the Doping Control Officer. And the sad, silent song of Lionel Messi’s stream, deep in the bowels of an Anfield that had threatened to rupture, made the hour twice as long as he waited for the sun to go sinking. 

Coming into a game with the impossible on its to-do list, Liverpool down three goals on aggregate returned home and dominated Barcelona 4-0 to return to its second consecutive Champions League final with a 4-3 aggregate victory on Tuesday at Anfield.

Just six days ago, this Barcelona team was on the other side of the beating, thrashing Liverpool 3-0 in Barca.

With Mohamed Salah ruled out of Tuesday’s Liverpool-Barcelona Champions League semifinal second leg with a concussion, maybe Jordi Alba thought he was in for a beautiful stroll across the lovely confines of Anfield. Maybe, looking across at replacement Xherdan Shaqiri, he thought, “Hell yeah, I might be marginally taller than this dude.” 

Or perhaps he thought he’d simply feed it to Lionel Messi (as has been the case on three occasions in LaLiga and twice in the UCL this season) and let him do the rest. 

All Barcelona had to do was get one. One away goal and it would all be over for Liverpool. One simple goal from the team with the greatest goal scorer of this era, perhaps of all time.

But Alisson wouldn’t let it happen. 

What a difference a goalkeeper makes.

Last year, Liverpool’s Champions League run was ended by poor goalkeeping, Loris Karius undoing all the good work done by Jurgen Klopp’s side against Real Madrid. 

Last Wednesday, Lionel Messi recorded his 600th goal for Barcelona during his club’s 3-0 Champions League semifinal first leg victory over Liverpool. It was an astonishing free kick, the 42nd of his Barça career, that venomously flew right past Joe Gomez’s face before curling into the top corner from 35 yards out. 

Liverpool was dominating in the second half. Fullbacks were flying forward, midfielders were ripping shots and forwards were bamboozling defenders.

But only Barcelona had Lionel Messi.

More than ever before, Messi is carrying Barcelona this season. Unlike past Champions League-winning sides Messi has been a part of, he is both the primary goal scorer and primary goal creator. 

Barcelona and Liverpool both started the first leg of their Champions League semifinal with plenty of attacking intent, throwing caution to the wind in search of a go-ahead goal. It didn’t take too long to arrive, with a Luis Suarez goal vs Liverpool giving the home side a lead in the 26th minute. 

And the former Liverpool man had no problem celebrating his goal.

Often, players choose to refrain from celebrating a goal against a former club as a show of respect. It’s a nice gesture. 

Forget all the complaints about which team had more rest or which team has more money — the first leg of the Champions League semifinals between Ajax and Tottenham was everything you want in a big match. 

Full of attacking intent from both sides, neither of which backed away from a single challenge, Ajax turned 30 minutes of first-half dominance into a 1-0 victory, a third-straight away win in the knockout rounds for the Amsterdam side. Spurs, meanwhile, suffered back-to-back defeats at the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.

Battered, bruised and bloodied, Jan Vertonghen was splayed out on the turf.

The Spurs defender smashed his own head into the back of teammate Toby Alderweireld’s head going for a free kick, causing a faucet of blood to spew forth. 

It was gruesome, and it summed up Tottenham’s opening half against Ajax.